Gold Coast on top after beating Glory

A fortunate Gold Coast moved to the top of the A-League ladder with a 2-1 win over a
spirited but luckless Perth Glory at Skilled Park on Sunday.

Perth had every reason to feel gypped of at least a draw after busy striker Branko
Jelic was denied a goal in the 67th minute, ruled offside after United keeper Jess
Vanstrattan had spilled a shot at goal from Michael Thwaite.
Jelic slammed the loose ball into the net and replays backed his protests when the
visitors were denied the equaliser.
With internationals Jason Culina and Shane Smeltz back from representative duty Gold
Coast led 1-0 at half time courtesy of a Scott Neville own goal in the 12th minute.
Neville tried to flick away a Culina free kick which Glory keeper Tando Velaphi
appeared to have safely covered.
Perth were unlucky not to be 2-1 up at half time.
Jelic muffed a golden opportunity when the clash was just 90 seconds old, failing to
do justice to a sweetly timed through ball from teammate Adriano Pellegrino.
Another great chance went begging when Wayne Srhoj took a poor shot option in the
44th minute, electing to beat Vanstrattan on the near post when most of the goal
was open.
Perth looked much sharper with the ball in attack that the Gold Coast and finally
levelled the clash when Todd Howarth found himself open in the 55th minute and
slotted a simple shot past Vanstrattan.
United's response was to score one of the fastest reply goals in A-League history to
snatch the lead back 2-1 just 15 seconds later.
Glory teammates Jamie Coyne and Scott Neville collided in defence allowing United
striker Joel Porter to deliver a perfect cross to Kiwi international Smeltz for his
10th goal of the season.
Perth were forced to reshuffle their line-up after the late withdrawal of former
Socceroo Mile Sterjovski which didn't help their cause.
The game was played in front of another disappointing crowd of 4,509.